Subject: Using .SHK Files on an XGS
From: "Bruce E. Fleury" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 1997 00:02:57 -0500
Newsgroups: comp.emulators.apple2

Looking at all those .SHK and .BSC files on the net and wondering how to
persuade them onto your XGS emulator? It can be done, with some
limitations. Steve Mentzer's recent post is right on...woking with .SHK
files on a PC is maddening. After many frustrating searches through
deja-news and many trials, here's a mini faq that gets you at least part
way there ...

Start with Nathan's INDISPENSABLE apple2
faq....(www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/csa2.html.. 

This version has clickable links..THANKS NATHAN !!). Read the section on
binscii and gs shrinkit CAREFULLY. This was always a bit tricky on a
real GS, more so on an emulator. You will need the MSDOS program
VIEWDISK (see the asimov archive in /utility) and the Apple II 140k .dsk
version of PROFILER ("Dos User's Conversion Kit") Profiler is around in
many forms- see hkstar.com in /utility as a .po.gz file..it unzips
[WinZip or Unix) to a .po disk image that Revival can recognize and
convert to .2mg. Apple.com should also have the "Convert" program you
need, it was part of the early Prodos system disk set. (Note: Save
yourself some typing by keeping all these files and programs in your
/xgs directory.)
	
Get the Binscii program (ASCII text) discussed in Nathan's FAQ. Run
Viewdisk ("type Viewdisk") from a "full screen" MS-DOS prompt (remember
Alt-Tab toggles between MSDOS and WIN95 screens.) There are no obvious
docs with Viewdisk, but type "help" or "help (command)" at the viewdisk
prompt ] for a list of commands, and more detailed help with individual
commands (ex.: help import). You will mainly need to use the format,
insert, catalog, and import commands. 

FORMAT a virtual DOS 3.3 140k disk (format mydisk), which automatically
"INSERTs" it, and IMPORT the binscii text file to this virtual disk.
(Type: import T binscii.txt file.txt) ...The first filename is the file
to import, the second is your new apple name. Viewdisk makes DOS 3.3
files, so you'll usually need a much shorter name for the new file.
CATALOG the virtual floppy to see your imported file. If you try this
with a file larger than 140 K the disk fills and you get an error
message. A few trials may be necessary, these old MSDOS programs are
user hostile for old "apple cores", but they work wonders if you keep at
them.

Revival (see XGS home page) will recognize this 140K DOS 3.3 .dsk image.
Convert it to 140k .2mg format (be sure to select "DOS 3.3" disk as the
image type). Boot your virtual hard drive in Slot 0 (see my earlier
posting on creating a virtual GS hard drive) and load your new binscii
disk in S6,D1. You should see the disk when you boot (if you remembered
to include your DOS 3.3 FST in the /system/fst folder when you first
installed GS/OS!!). 

You can see the files, but if you try "click and drag" copy to the
desktop, it will hang. You can't drag DOS 3.3 files directly to a GS/OS
desktop, virtual or otherwise. You will need to run CONVERT, on the old
Apple II Prodos file utility disk (Profiler) to convert this text file
from DOS 3.3 to Prodos. Now  go to BASIC, and EXEC the new ProDos text
file from applesoft basic, as described in Nathan's faq. 

Congrats! You should have a working Binscii program on your virtual hard
drive, step one (the hard one) in getting .shk files into working XGS
emulator programs. You can now decode the many .bsc text files on the
web with the UNCONVERT option. But what you usually get are those pesky
..shk files, and you need Shrinkit to unpack those. Next I'll tell you
how to get GS Shrinkit on your XGS to access some of the great GS .shk
files on the net.
Path: news1.icaen!news.uiowa.edu!chi-news.cic.net!howland.erols.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-feed4.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-feed1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!tulane.edu!not-for-mail
From: "Bruce E. Fleury" <[email-masked]>
Newsgroups: comp.emulators.apple2
Subject: .SHK Files on an XGS - Part 2/2
Date: Thu, 03 Jul 1997 10:51:31 -0500
Organization: Tulane University
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Using .SHK Files on an XGS - Part 2

Now that I can get .shk files unpacked and working on a virtual XGS hard
drive, I can start to restore my old GS desktop to new virtual glory...

If you tiptoed through the MS-DOS/Apple II minefield, as described in
Part 1, you now have BINSCII running on your XGS emulator's 32 meg hard
drive (see recent posts). How do you get SHRINKIT and use all those
apple .shk files on the net? Start with Nathan's Apple 2  FAQ
(www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/FAQ/csa2.html), and look at the Shrinkit
section. You can't unshrink a .shk version of SHRINKIT without using
SHRINKIT. Which you don't have. The trick is to get and unpack the
BINSCII compressed version of Shrinkit, which is why you went through
all that agony to get a crude version of binscii working in the first
place...

The binscii'd version of Shrinkit discussed in Nathan's FAQ (GSSHK11.bsc
or similar) is too large to fit on a 140K .dsk. Wouldn't you know
it...One workaround is to get Shrinkit34.bsc, a smaller ascii text
"binscii'd" file. Get this file mounted on a DOS 3.3 virtual floppy
using Viewdisk, as previously described. Use Revival to change your
Viewdisk .dsk image to DOS 3.3 .2mg format, and run Convert to change
your text file to ProDos. Run binscii on the converted Prodos text file,
and you should end up with a working copy of the old P8 version of
Shrinkit. Whew...

Because binscii files are just ascii text files, you can also split them
into smaller pieces after downloading them to your PC (using Notepad,
MS-Word etc..), convert these pieces into separate ProDos text files,
and "unbinscii" them, either in pieces (I clip them at the "FiLeStArT"
headings) or as a single "reassembled" text file (use Teach, on the
GS/OS disks if you don't have a GS word processor). You can now get
GSSHK11.bsc, and easily import/revive/convert the program in two or more
pieces. You should also upgrade your binscii decoder with the NDA
version, Gscii+ (an .shk file mentioned in Nathan's FAQ).

You can now get and unpack many binary .shk files on your XGS. But you
will have to get these files via ftp through UNIX or Kermit or Winsock
FTP or whatever vanilla PC terminal program you use (Hyperterminal in
WIN95 works fine for this), because web browsers will corrupt binary
transfers, and SHK files are binary (data) format. Nathan's FAQ
discusses this problem, and even provides the essential UNIX commands
you need to know for terminal mode transfers. The files must be
transferred as binary files through EVERY stage of the transfer, virtual
disks included.

Use Viewdisk to transfer your binary .SHK files to DOS 3.3  disk images 
(import B oldname newname). Use Revival to convert these disks to DOS
3.3 .2mg disks, and Convert to change the binary files to ProDos binary
files. When you FINALLY get the converted binary files on your hard
drive, run Shrinkit to unpack them. 

Many of these files are first shrunk, then binscii'd before being
archived on the net, so you must first run Binscii to extract the .shk
files, then Shrinkit to unshrink them. Good "starter" files to try are
numblox.bsq (run binscii on it first) and pyramid.shk, classic GS games
at ftp.hkstar.com (and elsewhere), which will easily fit on a 140k disk
image.

This method work just fine on the smaller .shk files (140K or less). But
larger files, other than binscii (.bsc) text files, are still just
beyond my reach. There seems to be no utility out there for importing
larger files into an 800K ProDos disk image. NULIB for MSDOS can unpack
a useable 800K or 140k disk image, and even unpack the individual (and
smaller) .shk files in the archive. But when you try to
import/revive/convert these individual .shk files, they turn into
garbage. I've tried NULIB both with and without uncompressing the
extracted .shk files, but no luck... 

There should also be a way to download directly to the emulator via the
virtual GS modem port and Proterm, Kermit, or similar IIGS terminal
program somehow accepting input from the PC modem. I've heard rumors of
this being done with other Apple II emulators. You could then pipeline
..shk files of any size directly from the net via .ftp to the XGS
emulator modem port. I've tried this with Proterm, but with no success
so far....Hmmmm.... 

Hope this helps a few of you out there like myself who KNEW it could be
done, but could only find a hint here or there as to how to do it. MAJOR
thanks to all involved in the creation of the tremendous XGS emulator!
Makes you start wondering why you let that good old GS slip away in the
first place.... Ah, well... now you can have the best of  both worlds!

Dr. Bruce E. Fleury
[email-masked]